


Ghost of you

by Shibakamiko



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Guardian Angels, M/M, Post-Canon, Spoilers, that makes a lot of angst lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 17:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13722951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shibakamiko/pseuds/Shibakamiko
Summary: A world without Noctis feels so empty... yet, Ignis knows he had to keep going, for both their sake. But when an odd 'ghost' starts manifesting in his everyday life, he wonders if maybe, just maybe, his lost love isn't completely gone.(for Tumblr Ignoct week day 1, prompt: Noctis acts as Ignis' guardian angel post-game)





	Ghost of you

          At first, there were impressions.

A nostalgic, lingering scent in the air. An unexpected feeling of warmth grazing his skin when he least expected it. The sensation that somehow, somewhere, a voice kept calling him at the very edge of human audition.  
It took Ignis by surprise every time, and his breath would catch in his throat, everything he was doing promptly forgotten in favor of blind eyes looking around pointlessly. But of course, he could feel around all he wanted, he wouldn’t find a thing. None of that body he longed for so much. No silky-soft raven hair to caress. No lips to kiss. So after a couple weeks of disillusions, he finally convinced himself that it was only his mourning mind playing tricks on him.  
And why would he hope… Noctis wouldn’t come back. No matter how hard he wished for a miracle, some truths just couldn’t be changed. He found his corpse on the throne. He came to the funerals. He was the last one standing, next to the grave, silent tears still dripping down his cheeks long after everyone else had left. And he had called out to him, oh, how he called… for weeks and weeks, every day and every night. His broken heart kept screaming for the only one he ever loved as he held onto the last keepsake he had of Noctis: a silver button from the boy’s fatigue, one he had lost ten years ago and that Ignis had no time to mend before… before the world crumbled around them.

But his calls remained unanswered. Of course.

Noctis wouldn’t come back. He had to accept it, and live up to his legacy. Make sure his sacrifice wasn’t in vain, so when they will finally be reunited, he could face him with a smile.

            The moment he came to term with his decision however, as if on cue, these odd incidents started happening.  
The impressions came and went for a couple weeks. Then, took a more tangible shape. When he cooked and accidentally knocked down a glass, he wouldn’t hear it shattering on the floor, and would instead find the object perfectly intact on the counter. When he looked for a lost item, it always seemed to pop up right beneath his fingertips.

Even him, rational to a fault, couldn’t manage to explain all this. This was… troubling. But not in a frightening way. He could have imagined either a ghost haunting him personally, or his own sanity growing thin. In any case, he could have at least broached the subject with Gladio and Prompto, ask for their opinions. But he kept it for himself instead. His little secret.   
Once the shock settled, he even started talking to the void. Calling it by his lost lover’s name. Thanking it for its regular help, and telling it about the rebuilding of Insomnia, about how his days went, about everything he could think of. This quickly became a habit. If at first he had hated these evenings alone at home, for no warm embrace would ever wait for him there again, he began looking forward to these moments. In his mind’s eyes, he pictured Noctis there with him. The king’s 20 years-old self, the last image the adviser had of him before he lost his sight. He would conjure the memory of that sweet, child-like smile Noctis always bore for him alone. The way his eyes sparkled when he was happy. How his black bangs would wave gently when he cocked his head sideways – a gesture Ignis had never been able to resist.

He knew this wasn’t exactly healthy, to wallow in the past like that, to hold onto the remnant image of someone long gone and refuse to face reality. But he didn’t care. Because even if he was, indeed, going insane, that surreal presence eased the pain. He could fool himself, and believe that ghost really was his younger lover… even with no proof to support that theory.  
It was still better than solitude.  
Better than knowing his king had left him.

          He didn’t imagine that these days, too, could end.  
That day had started just like any other. Ignis eating breakfast while conversing with his silent ghost. Said ghost’s presence had grown more important over the last days, and the adviser could have sworn he felt some kind of ethereal embrace around his body at night. His mind almost recognized a brief, light pressure of lips on his nape, too. And his heart clenched hard, so hard… though when he turned over and felt around the cold mattress, as he should have expected, no one was there.

Maybe… maybe he really was going crazy. But that was a madness he gladly welcomed. One that made him smile rather than weep.   
And it caused no harm, right?

His dark glasses perched on his nose, he got ready to leave for the day. Before he did though, his hand found itself reaching out for Noctis’ silver button. He had no idea why but… today he felt the need to keep it with him. Like a good luck charm, a little reminder of his beloved ghost. Before he left, he turned around and smiled at the empty apartment.

           “I’ll see you tonight.” More a figure of speech than anything, with him blind and that presence a mere phantom. But he liked the sound of it. It almost felt like he had someone to return to.

Today was quite the important day, too. After clearing the streets, the last Crownsguards and citizens had begun restoring the city to its former glory, and their current work focused on putting the statues of the Old Wall back at their rightful places. A part Ignis wanted to supervise himself, despite his disability. After all, the ancient kings allowed him to save Noctis’ life once… and despite the cost he already paid, he felt like he owed them as much.

He easily walked up the scaffolding, with an assertiveness born from years of living without sight. Now was the moment to hoist the bust of the Mystic and place it back on the rest of his stone body – a delicate maneuver. Head tilted in concentration, Ignis listened carefully to the movements around and the descriptions the site manager gave him. Everything seemed to go perfectly fine so far…

Until he could hear the distinctive sound of a chain breaking.

There were screams. And a terrible cracking. The scaffolding shook violently, and Ignis could vaguely pick up people yelling at him to go away. But the chaos around made it impossible for him to move based on hearing, and his hands slipped on the railing…

          That was when he felt it.

Arms suddenly wrapping around his neck, and a body colliding with his, pushing him out of harm’s way – just a little second before the falling statue crushed the space he had been standing on. All air left his lung upon impact, and his glasses went flying. But… he was alive. He was alive, and he could feel  _someone_  here with him, on him, shielding him in a gentle, familiar warmth…

Milky eyes widened. Lips parting to call out  _his_  name… but every sound got promptly swallowed when another pair of lips found his. The touch barely there, a feather’s caress at best. And that vanished much too soon for his liking. The soft embrace had started growing lighter too, he realized, and he desperately tried holding it there, hands flailing blindly around yet going right through that warmth. As if it didn’t exist. As if it never existed.

           “No…”  
His throat constricted. Uncontrollable tears prickling his eyes.  
           “Noctis… Noct… please…”  _Stay. Stay with me!_  
Some say blind people see with their heart. And at that time, Ignis really  _saw_. He saw his king, like he had never seen him. With ten more years than in his memories. A short beard making him look so much like his father, and longer hair framing his face; things he had touched and felt but never actually perceived with his own eyes…  
And Noctis was smiling. One of these radiant, child-like smiles. His mouth formed silent words, that Ignis recognized immediately.

_“Live, and be happy.”  
_ _“I will be waiting for you…”_

That was the last image he had of him. The apparition slowly dissolved in a brief flash of light. And then… darkness. Like Ignis had gotten used to.

Only one thing remained, tightly gripped in his hand. The silver button. His keepsake, his good luck charm.

The tears overflew, and he did nothing to stop them. Holding his temples as he let all the pain, all the grief come out. Around him, the workers were exchanging worried comments and running aimlessly. The site manager laid a hand on Ignis’ shoulder, and handed him his lost glasses.  
           “What on Eos happened there? You… the way you dodged that thing was… How did you even do that?!”  
A pale, but honest smile stretched Ignis’ lips. Wiping his eyes on the back of his sleeve, he gratefully took the glasses and placed them back where they belonged.  
           “I didn’t dodge.” Then added, in a whisper: “I had a guardian angel…”

           Like he feared, when he got back home that evening the ghost… no… Noctis wasn’t there anymore. As if his sole purpose had been to protect the adviser from a certain death today. What did he sacrifice for that… just how much energy did he use to project his astral form back to the land of the livings… only to save Ignis.  
That realization hurt. That absence of anything in the apartment hurt. Everything hurt, but… there was hope in there, too. Noctis said it himself. He was waiting. And though Ignis regretted having to let him wait too long… he would keep on living, and walk tall. He would make Noctis proud of him. He knew, now, that they were destined to meet again, and that was everything he could have asked for.

His hand took hold of the silver button, and he brought it out of his pocket. Letting his fingertips run over the intricate skull design. A good luck charm… yes, indeed. In more ways than one.  
           “This is no goodbye… is it, love?” he murmured, with the faintest hint of a smile.  
No… they would never say goodbye. In this life, or in the next, they would find their way back to each other. Noctis proved it today. Nothing was impossible. 

This was only a ‘see you later’.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my entry for Ignoct week day 1 on Tumblr ^^. And yes... I do feel terrible for putting the guys through more pain after all they went through haha... But love transcends everything. And these two sure have a strong bond.  
> Hope you liked that sad thing!


End file.
